How to Investigate Animal Cruelty in NY State – A Manual of Procedures

In this section, we have included selected sections of laws from Agriculture and Markets Law, Environmental Conservation Law, General Business Law, Penal Law, and Vehicle and Traffic Law that deal with causing harm or suffering to animals. In the section entitled “NYSHA’s notes,” we offer insights gained from practical experience in this field. We have also included a section of USDA law that may be relevant when NYS laws are being violated.

Note that in charging a person with violations of Article 26 of the Agriculture and Markets law dealing with animal cruelty, the number of charges you bring depends on the number of animals involved or the number of individual acts of cruelty. Thus, if you have a violation of Section 353, failing to provide proper sustenance, food or water, and you find 10 animals in that situation, then you have 10 violations of that section, or if you determine that a dog has been beaten on five different occasions, you could have 5 violations of Section 353.

Where the violation of an animalrelated law in one area of law, such as Penal Law, indicates a violation of an animal cruelty statute in Agriculture and Markets law, we have provided a reference to the additional law that might be in violation. If your investigation indicates that to be the case, the additional violations can be added to your original charge.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As we said at the beginning of this manual, in any case where the reader has a question regarding the intent of the laws and/or legal proceeding discussed in this section or any other section of this manual, or their legal rights and duties in the situations described in this section or any other section of this manual, they should consult an attorney for advice BEFORE proceeding.

We have provided Article 26 of the Agriculture and Markets Law as well as other laws which are current as of April 1996. We have annotated them with notes based on our experience and provided cross references to other laws that may have been violated – in the belief that this information will be of assistance to you.

However, laws may change each year. Thus, to stay current, with the animal cruelty laws and dog control laws, you can order updated copies free of charge from the Agriculture and Markets Department each year and keep them with this manual.